The co-founder of string field theory explains anti-gravity to the rest of us.
Funny thing about theoretical physicists: Most of them seem to know how to talk to n00bs. This isn’t rocket science — wormholes are far more complicated — and yet somehow accredited brainiacs like Michio Kaku find a way a putting things so as we c’n unnerstand em. For him, maybe it’s because he’s never lost touch with his inner Trekkie. In Physics of the Impossible, the co-founder of string field theory is just as handy referencing Gene Roddenberry and Douglas Adams as he is Einstein and Hawking. Which is the point here: to examine science fiction’s most imaginative plot devices — anti-gravity, teleporters, the Death Star — and cook up some way they might become a reality (in, say, a couple centuries). Often, the path takes Kaku to some wonderfully messed up places: “To make Harry Potter invisible, one would have to liquefy him, boil him to create steam, crystallize him, heat him again, and then cool him off, all of which would be quite difficult to accomplish, even for a wizard.” Brilliant.